Gratitude List

 Let me just give you a quick list of things I was grateful for this week:

-finding on Facebook

-in person interviews with President

-President and Sister Droubay

-My high school days

-Brazil

-Quesadillas

-The piano

-Latroy, Lisbet, and Fola (what fun names, right?)

-LIFE

Anyways. Why am I so grateful? Well maybe my man Elder Uchtdorf can say it better than me "When we are grateful to God in our circumstances, we can experience gentle peace in the midst of tribulation...we can experience the closeness and warmth of heaven's embrace."

And that is exactly what happened this week. I felt of heaven's embrace and an extra witness that this is God's work.  

To illustrate this principle again, let me tell you how Facebook finding has gone from 

"trying to open a can with no can opener" to "cans with the little tab that come right off." BIG DIFFERENCE. BIG MIRACLES.

I have been struggling to find on Facebook and especially trying to find people in my area to teach. It seems like no one responds to my personal messages (which I probably wouldn't either if I were them!), and we haven't been able to see giant miracles as far as finding. But through this drought, God refined my abilities and opened my mind to His "mysteries" regarding Facebook and now I am in conversation with a solid chunk of people in my town and have set up a few appointments to meet with them to discuss the gospel! Facebook has become such a tool rather than a distraction! God is hastening the work!

(By the way, if you are curious to find out some cool tactics on Facebook (super simple!) send me a quick email. I don't want to bore the rest of the crowd (aka my mom and grandmas) who are reading this haha)

But it was just another testament to me that God will reveal his mysteries to us if we seek diligently! They aren't plainly laid out before us so we gotta put in the "spiritual wrestle" to obtain the prize!

One last story or thought I wanna end with comes from my man Latroy. He is my favorite. He is just so blunt and funny and he sounds like the zebra (Marty) from Madagascar (you better know Elder Taylor!) We have been teaching him and we called to have our lesson yesterday but it turned out really awkward within the first 5 mins as his dog was walking on the phone that was lying on the ground of the car as we saw them eating fried chicken and driving AND talking about how skinny some of the girls walking around the outlets outside looked. We didn't necessarily feel the spirit. But we learned they were on their way to the branch president's house, who invited them for the sacrament! We were so surprised and happy so we called them later that night to discuss how it went! He said some of the most pure and precious words that we all can internalize! (Remember, voice of Marty):

     "It made me feel different! It made me feel good! It feels like the Lord is moving in me. All the trials and stress I'm going through are gone. It’s like starting over." 

So true Latroy. The gospel feels great, relieving, fantastic, healing, soul-reviving, and amazingly good! 

Love you all!

Elder Gardanier 

(PS, no one is cool enough to have a relationship with David Archuleta but that is okay. Maybe one will turn up;)

 

Indoor Pool!

Nothin' like living on the coast without some water right? Well on Saturday some parts of the zone and mission got 7 inches of rain and we were fortunate to have another flood!!!! (Can you tell I'm working on positivity? haha) Yes. I know. Might seem like a dejavu moment reading this email but we did have our second flood in the second week in a row. I can now tally the amount of floods in my house to 3 during my mission! I guess you could say I'm a good luck charm ;);)

     It's kind of a cool parable we could relate. The first time it flooded they tore out the carpet and replaced some things but I tried to mention that the flooding problem is still there. The sun is shining now so of course, the problem seems fixed, but when the rains come the same problem will result! The workers said that they fixed the problem outside so we should be fine. Well sure enough, when the "rains came down and the floods came up" the house with the missionaries washed away ;). We called in confusion, frustration, and sorrow that they had to come fix the same problem in the same spots only a week later! As I look at the work they did the second time, it seems as if they are getting to the "root" problem. 

     So how does that apply? Well repentance is a change. Repentance is doing something to avoid another thing in the future and to start getting closer to God. Repentance isn't just patching up what was broken and soggy, but it's to fix the root problem. 

     I think this principle is illustrated perfectly in Ether 12:27. I skip over these parts but read it again with this emphasis...

 "And if men come unto me I will show unto them their weakness. I give unto men weakness that they may be humble; and my grace is sufficient for all men that humble themselves before me; for if they humble themselves before me, and have faith in me, then will I make weak things become strong unto them."

So. To sum that up. Weaknesses don't make us strong. Nope. Crazy to think, right? If weaknesses made us stronger I'd be squattin' 600 lbs, running 100ks every day, and still have enough energy to index a batch of 9,968 every day because I have A LOT of weaknesses! However, weaknesses are actually given to make us humble. THEN humility leads to Christ. Humility is the key that turns our will over to His and allows Christ to work in our lives. Once this enabling process begins and is continued through consistent and diligent efforts, THEN we are made strong through Christ's grace. 

     It's simple...the fastest way to the atonement is the path we need to take. The fastest way to repentance is the most rewarding trek we will take. There is NO OTHER plan other than the one that leads to Christ, repenting of our sins, and following him through covenants. That is something EVERYONE who will live with God will need to do. Period. That’s it. That's the amazing "secret" of the gospel: 

 Christ's atonement.

 Despite our little fiasco and flooding apartment, I can say that I've learned a lot from it and am looking for a permanent fix now haha. I'm done having soggy socks!

Love you all!

Elder Gardanier

 ALSO. Shout out to my sister and brother-in-law (Aimee and Hugh) for getting sealed! They deserve the world!!!

 

Soggy Carpet

 The excitement of a hurricane quickly went away when I woke up in the night with drenched sheets because of the leaky window...and when we woke up in the morning, we had sopping carpets that led to some furniture moving, carpet replacing, and power outages too! However, I can report that the ice cream is still good and we were able to enjoy it in a solid form that night!

  Hurricane's, COVID, or 104 degree weather doesn't stop us; in fact, we were able to have a lesson with Josh in person and see how his daily challenges have been. He has had some MAJOR miracles in his life this past week...His 8 month baby boy had a doctor appointment for his hearing and his heart that have come back in the past with bad news...However, with some news this past week, his baby boy has no more heart problems and has perfect hearing. There were many other doctor appointments that were so amazing and miracles! Josh was able to look at this past week and see how he was happier and how the Lord has played a major role in his life. We are now cutting back smoking, drinking, etc addictions to help him feel the influence of the Spirit stronger in his life to help with all the problems he has. He is progressing well and we are still praying that September 5th will be an amazing day as his baptism! He can definitely get there with the progress we are making so far!

 Okay...one more miracle because I wanna hehehe. This past week we gave our neighbors upstairs a plate of cookies ON A SUPER NICE PLATE (so they would have to return it to us hahah BINGO) and they came down to return it, we talked a bit, and later that night we called them and prayed with them. THEN, flash forward to 2 nights ago, our neighbor came down to our apartment again and gave us JAPANESE FOOD! We were able to set up a zoom appointment on Tuesday with her and a direct quote from her "Yes, I am very excited for Tuesday!" LET'S GOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

 Other than feeling so blessed to be a missionary in Newport News in Virginia AT this amazing time, I just feel so blessed. We have a district pday today and we walked down the colonial roads of Historic Williamsburg. It was so amazing and I loved seeing the actors and horses and animals ahahhaha I loved it too much. I would highly highly recommend Williamsburg (except for you mom, I know you would come over in a heartbeat if I told you haha). 

 ALSO. IF YOU DON'T READ ANY OF MY LETTER JUST READ THIS NEXT LINE!!!!! I need a connection to David Archuleta haha. I have this cool project I'm working on and just need his beautiful voice for literally 4 minutes. THAT'S IT. So....if there are ANY connections at all to David Archuleta, let me know and shoot me an email ASAP!!

 love you all!

Elder Gardanier

 

Yeeted out of Yorktown

This past week was transfers and I made my way down to beautiful Newport News! I love it already and got to see the ocean for the first time today (in a long time) and it was stella. Well. parts of it...we had an amazing plan this pday to go to Yorktown and see sites from the Revolutionary war and there is this super cool road that is all old time feelin...has no stop lights, goes through the forest and by the ocean, and stops at Yorktown, Jamestown, and Williamsburg. We were pumped! Well we started at Yorktown and I got a solid 2 photos of some cool cannons taken from inside trenches that were created more than 200 years ago! It was so cool! We stopped real quickly to get some food and as we were eating in our car, literally a hurricane came haha. Like no joke, tropical storm Isaias isn't so "tropical" and canceled the rest of our day...We are praying that it passes by quickly and doesn't do too much damage! President took a few sisters out of their apartments and relocated them while this tropical storm/hurricane goes by. It's kind of a fun adventure of needing to get 72 hour kits together, get a safe house, and be the "dad" of the zone. What a crazy time...I can't stress that enough like I'm sure this hurricane is just spreading COVID :(

 This past Sunday we had a lesson with Josh who has been taught by the missionaries forever but doesn't seem to progress. We realized that the missionaries were just taking care of superficial problems and not digging down to his roots. We realized that they were trying to correct his smoking problem but we figured out yesterday he doesn't even know if God exists. He wants to know but the way he's grown up, he can't believe something he doesn't see. We were able to powerfully testify that if he puts in the actions everyday coupled with the desire TO KNOW, then he would receive an answer. He agreed and we put a baptismal "goal" for him for September 5th knowing that a lot of progress needs to be made but a goal motivates him! God is preparing his family to hear the word! His wife is a member, he almost had a heart attack last week, his daughter has hearing aids at age 5, his son that was just born might be completely deaf or have lost major hearing, they have a daughter that has a learning disability and is majorly behind, and their washer and drying stopped working! A lot is coming at them right now but we know that it's after you hit rock bottom that the Grace of Jesus Christ isn't just a "good option" but NEEDED. We are excited for them and are ready to see miracles that happen through his faith!

 I'm am so blessed to be a missionary especially during THIS time as, "the field is white already to harvest; and it is the eleventh hour, and the last time that I shall call laborers into my vineyard." (D&C 33:3)

 Let's keep gathering Israel and sprint to the finish because it is SO soon!! I think a lot sooner than most of us expect;)

 Love you all!

Elder Gardanier

 

Newport News!

Well. Sadly. My time has come to a close (for now) here in Charlottesville. I won't be seeing all the beautiful trees change for fall BUT I will be seeing Jamestown, Yorktown, a giant ship yard for the navy, and so many other amazing things! I will continue doing the same work in Newport News and am very excited!!

This past week was crazy productive. We found ourselves eating dinner for 15 mins then jumping into a lesson or two and falling asleep after 5 mins just EXHAUSTED. God has truly allowed us to use our talents to spread forth the gospel. If you haven't already, under my Facebook account (Daniel Gardanier) or the group called "Learning Piano in Minutes" there are videos being posted of the ORIGINAL mutual album singers. We have more videos lined up and coming out soon so don't miss out! We were also able to record some piano music for a health care worker promotion with some Hollywood stars (or at least that is what the guy says haha...). We will get a link posted for that when he finishes that clip up!

But one of the coolest lessons was with a guy named Art Wheeler who has performed the piano for the president a few times, has written thousands of songs, has traveled all over for playing the piano, and is a GENIUS. We set up a lesson with him to talk about the gospel and the way he prefaced it, it sounded like he wanted to bash. But when we got into the lesson, it turns out we agreed on almost everything. It was amazing to clear any confusion he had and realize us "Mormons" are truly members of Christ church trying to add additional information and truths to what he already believes. That was amazing...Sadly I won't continue teaching him or be getting piano lessons from him, but I loved the little time we had together! I pray he gets baptized here shortly!

Other highlights include this amazing pday where I got to play pickleball for a quick 45 minutes with one of my best friends from home...Saige Tornow! She was staying at her sister’s house 10 mins away from my house and we got special permission to play a quick round of pickleball! God is amazing and works so many miracles and tender mercies!!

Stay tuned next week as I take on Newport News and explore the United States roots!!

-Elder Gardanier